Why buying better takes weeks

Most businesses that make or build things buy the same materials again and again — fabric, boards, hardware, packaging. And most of it comes from the same trader down the road, at the price you've always paid. Somewhere, a factory makes the same thing for less. Finding it just takes time nobody has.

Search a marketplace and you get hundreds of listings: the same product five times over, prices that can't be real, and links that lead nowhere.

Then the writing starts: one enquiry after another, in a second language, across a time difference — and a week of chasing before you have a price you can compare.

Traditionally, that's the work of a buying department, or a sourcing agent. The new way: you say what you need. Snappy finds the factories, checks them, writes to them and asks for the price. You decide who you buy from.

This course follows Dunewood Workshop, a furniture maker in Al Quoz, Dubai. Yusuf, the owner, buys the grey fabric for its lounge sofas from a trader in town. Now he'd like a factory price for a thousand metres.

Four short lessons: say what you need, check the shortlist, let Snappy ask for the price — and see where Snappy stops and Yusuf takes over. Let's begin.